đȘModi's Walking Dead, Economy...
[#25] Tale of Chaos: When Trump played his cards, International Media cried tsunamis. Now that 'true' Numbers are out, can't hear anyone? Hello MAGA, you there?
Morning iKyu-riskers! Ever Felt, in your childhood or adult life: you are being bullied for being yourself? Some place where you were seen as a threat, thus the best way to rob you out of the idea of âYOUâ is to bog you down with all the flaws you possess.
Make you conscious of your own existence. Hits you right where you can betray yourself. Has it ever happened to you?
If yes, I feel you.
And for those who donât, look around. Thatâs exactly what was fabricated for India (still an ongoing discourse). What I donât like here is the abbreviation of how India is being made to look down on by international media, controlled under White House.
Trump, the charade-master here, has been making sure that they use every backdoor or soft power in their hand to manipulate the narrative. From claiming he "stopped a nuclear war" between India and Pakistan (mentioned 30+ times publicly, might I add) to slapping a 50% tariff on Indian goods because we dared to buy Russian oil. The same oil, mind you, that Europe continues to import through the backdoor while pointing fingers at us.
But here's where the plot thickens, my dear (K)urious minds: while Trump was busy orchestrating his symphony of sanctions and the Western media was painting India as the villain who chose BRICS over bucks, something interesting happened. The numbers started talking.
The entire worldâs watching. And when, few delusional voices march up to say âItâs Indiaâs Turn nowâŠâ - donât shy away from supporting it. Right now, we need that unity as one true nation, to showcase and fight the narrative war.
The history remembers those who win the narrative. Everything else is replaceable.
THE (K)EY NOTES:
The (K)inK: We, The Walking DeadâŠ
Geopolitics is a synonym for Gaslighting.
And now that the message is clear from our beloved nation leader to the world, Modi Ji, that no foreign power can ever again bend us in our rich heritage, our culture, our economy and our people.
We will NOT be bullied.
Not by whites, White House or neighbouring countries whole live in pouches of developed nations try to regain control of something that they lost a long time ago. Itâs our turn, Indiaâs turn now.
Letâs brutally breakdownđȘ this rollercoaster where geopolitics meets gaslighting, a nation of 1.4 billion decided to write its own script instead of reading from someone elseâs teleprompter *wink* in todayâs reprise edition of inK by iKyu.
The (K)inK.
WE, THE WALKING DEADâŠ
India Becomes World's 4th Largest Economy: In mid-2025, India officially surpassed Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The IMF projects India's economy at $4.187 trillion, modestly overtaking Japan's $4.186 trillion. With GDP growth holding steady at 6.4-6.5% (fastest among major economies), India's walking dead seems pretty alive to me. The kicker? This happened WHILE Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Indian goods. Get a feel of whatâs itâs like to get bullied, wait for the right time to strike and *BAAMMM*, K.O. Yes, that!
Japan's R&I Upgrades India to BBB+: September 19, 2025 - Japan's Rating and Investment Information upgraded India's sovereign rating to BBB+ from BBB with stable outlook. This marks India's THIRD rating upgrade in 2025 alone (after S&P and Morningstar DBRS). The Japanese praised Modi's policies on infrastructure development and fiscal management. Funny how actual rating agencies see growth while Trump sees ghosts.
đȘAMERICAâS SaaSy MOVE: THE $100,000 SUBSCRIPTION NOBODY ASKED FORâŠ
Visualise this with me: Youâre running a successful software company. Youâve been using Microsoft Office for years at $99/year. One fine morning, Microsoft announces: âStarting tomorrow, Office costs $100,000/year. Take it or leave it.â
Thatâs exactly what Trump did with H1B visas on September 19, 2025.
The fee jumped from $4,500 to $100,000 - a 2,122% increase overnight. But hereâs where it gets deliciously absurd - Indians account for 71% of H1B visa recipients, making this less of a policy change and more of a targeted subscription model aimed at one customer base.
The Ken would call this a classic case of âplatform monopoly gone rogue.â When you control the only gateway to the American Dream. What a you can price it however you want. Amazon, with its 10,000 H1B workers, faces a potential cost of $1 billion for a single yearâs applicants. TCS, with 5,500 visas, looking at $550 million.
But wait, it gets better. The policy was announced on Friday with a one-day deadline - implemented on Sunday. Imagine Netflix telling you on Friday that starting Sunday, your subscription is $10,000/month. Thatâs not pricing strategy; thatâs economic terrorism with a business model wrapper.
The chaos was cinematic. An Emirates flight from San Francisco to Dubai was stuck on the tarmac for three hours as H1B holders scrambled to understand if they would be able to re-enter the country. Indian techies abandoned family visits, cancelled vacations, rushed back to America like it was the last flight out of Saigon.
Hereâs the business model Trump created:
Basic Entry: $100,000/year (H1B visa)
Premium Upgrade: $1 million (Gold Card - yes, he actually created this)
Hidden Costs: Your sanity, family time, and dignity
Cancellation Policy: Get deported
Customer Support: Tweet at Trump and pray
The irony is, the same tech companies that built subscription models for everything from music to meditation now find themselves subscribers to America itself. Satya Nadella pays Microsoft for Office 365; Microsoft pays Trump for Nadella 365.
This isnât immigration policy; itâs SaaS: States as a Service.
And like every badly priced SaaS product, customers are looking for alternatives. Analysts suggest talent may flow to Canada, the UK, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
Trumpâs Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said âall of the big companies are on boardâ. Sure, Howard. The same way weâre all âon boardâ with paying taxes - not because we love it, but because the alternative involves men with guns.
Welcome to America 2.0 - where your visa expires faster than your Prime membership, costs more than a Lamborghini, and comes with terms and conditions that change based on presidential mood swings. The land of the free just became the land of the fee, and the home of the brave became the home of the subscription slave.
đȘRISING PHOENIX, PAINTED AS WALKING DEAD
So itâs January 2025. Donald Trump returns to the White House with the subtlety of a sledgehammer in a china shop. His first order of business? Teaching the world a lesson about the "mighty U.S. Dollar" and anyone who dares to even whisper about alternatives.
Then thereâs India. A nation that had the audacity to continue its 50-year relationship with Russia, buy oil at discounted rates (smart business, anyone?), and worse, be part of BRICS â a group Trump labeled "anti-American" faster than you can say "Make America Great Again."
The timeline reads like a thriller novel written by someone who failed Economics 101:
Act I: Trump starts with what he knows best â threats. "Any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff," he thundered on Truth Social in July. The man who once said India and America together make "MEGA" (MAGA + MIGA, remember that February cringe?) was now treating India like a rebellious teenager who needed discipline.
But 10% wasn't enough drama for our protagonist. By August 27, he escalated to 50% tariffs on Indian goods â making it one of the highest rates America charges any country. The reason? India's purchase of Russian oil was "funding Russia's war machine."
The hypocrisy? Europe imported âŹ43.5 billion worth of fossil fuels from Russia in 2024. The U.S. itself continues buying Russian uranium and minerals. But India, buying oil for its 1.4 billion people's energy security? That's where Trump drew his moral line in the sand.
Media Machinery: Western media went into overdrive. Headlines screamed about India's "betrayal," its "funding of war," its "anti-American stance." The narrative was set: India was choosing Russia over righteousness, BRICS over brotherhood, oil over ethics.
What they conveniently forgot to mention:
India's oil imports from Russia actually DECREASED in 2025
India maintained that energy security for its population was non-negotiable
The same "moral high ground" countries were finding creative ways to import Russian energy
CNN ran pieces about BRICS being "set up to hurt" America. Time Magazine called it "anti-American." Bloomberg worried about the dollar's dominance. The fear was palpable â not of India, but of a world that might not revolve around Washington's whims.
Numbers Don't Lie: While Trump was busy with his tariff tantrums and media was painting doomsday scenarios, something remarkable was happening:
India's GDP grew at 6.5% in fiscal 2024-25, accelerating to 7.4% in the last quarter. The country lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, with another 171 million escaping extreme poverty between 2011 and 2023.
Foreign exchange reserves remained robust. Fiscal deficit fell to 4.8% of GDP. Inflation dropped to 2.1% in June 2025 â the lowest since January 2019. The current account deficit stayed under 1% of GDP.
Three international rating agencies upgraded India's sovereign rating in 2025. Japan's R&I specifically cited "resilient economic growth," "progress on fiscal consolidation," and "improved external stability."
DD // Diplomatic Dance: When Trump claimed he "stopped a nuclear war" between India and Pakistan, Modi didn't tweet. He didn't hold press conferences. He waited. Then, in a calculated move, he picked up the phone and told Trump directly â there was no mediation, no trade discussions, no external intervention. Just two militaries talking through existing channels.
When Trump's calls came flooding in before the 50% tariff deadline, Modi simply didn't answer. No drama, no desperation, no deals under duress.
Instead, India quietly strengthened ties with Russia (NSA Doval met Putin), improved relations with China (Modi visited after 7 years), and continued its BRICS engagement.
The message was clear: India won't be bullied into choosing sides.
And in fact this was in fact another narrative by the DS. Paint Modi Ji as someone taking sides and snatching Trumpâs global limelight. I mean of course after his disastrous trick to the world about how he stopped the âwarâ.
50-50 Stabbing-ship: Despite 50% tariffs, despite media warfare, despite diplomatic pressure, India's economy is projected to grow at 6.4% in 2025-26.
By 2030, it's set to become the world's third-largest economy with a projected GDP of $7.3 trillion.
The "Walking Dead" that Trump and Western media tried to portray is actually sprinting towards becoming a $5 trillion economy. While they were busy writing obituaries, India was writing history.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics even published a study showing that Trump's 100% BRICS threat would harm the U.S. economy more than the targeted nations â reducing U.S. GDP by $432 billion and increasing prices by 1.6%.
đȘWHEN BULLIES MEET BUILDERS
You know what fascinates me about this entire saga? It's not the tariffs, the threats, or even the remarkable economic resilience. It's the profound difference in approach between noise and progress.
Trump operates from a playbook written in the 1980s â threaten, intimidate, negotiate, claim victory. It worked in real estate. It worked in reality TV. But geopolitics in 2025? That's a different beast altogether.
India's response has been a masterclass in what I call "Strategic Silence." No Twitter wars, no diplomatic tantrums, no rushed trade deals. Just a quiet, confident march forward. While Trump was tweeting, India was building. While media was fear-mongering, India was manufacturing.
There's something beautifully poetic about Japan â a close U.S. ally â upgrading India's credit rating in the middle of Trump's tariff war. It's like watching your best friend's friend publicly acknowledge that you're doing great while your best friend is trying to ground you.
The truth is, Trump's approach revealed more about America's anxieties than India's ambitions. The fear of BRICS isn't about currency â it's about a world where decisions are made in Delhi, Beijing, and BrasĂlia, not just D.C. The anger about Russian oil isn't about Ukraine â it's about India making pragmatic choices without seeking permission.
What we're witnessing isn't just an economic story. It's a psychological thriller where a former colony refuses to be colonized again â economically, diplomatically, or narratively. India's crime? Growing too fast, thinking too independently, and worse â succeeding despite sanctions.
The Western media's attempt to paint India as the "Walking Dead" while it's literally overtaking Japan's economy is gaslighting of the highest order. It's like telling someone they're drowning while they're winning a swimming championship.
My favourite part: India's youth â 65% of the population under 35 â aren't buying it. They see the tech jobs, the rising startups, the global CEOs of Indian origin, and they know the truth. The Walking Dead don't build space programs, don't manufacture vaccines for the world, and certainly don't have the world's largest digital payment ecosystem.
Plus boon in disguise was thrown at us with the intention that it would hurt us; but it felt like a canon event in Indiaâs global leader growth story: H1B Visa.
Modi's calculated silence speaks volumes. By not engaging in Trump's drama, he's shown that India isn't playing defense anymore â it's playing its own game. And in this game, the score isn't kept in tweets or tariffs, but in GDP growth, poverty reduction, and global partnerships.
When someone tries to gaslight a nation of 1.4 billion people, make sure they don't have calculators, credit rating agencies, and actual economic data on their side.
ACT II: So here's my question to leave you with: When the world's largest democracy meets the world's loudest democracy, who really wins â the one making all the noise, or the one making all the progress? And more importantly, what happens when the "Walking Dead" becomes too alive to ignore?
Until next time, keep questioning the narrative â because sometimes, the real story is in what they're desperately trying not to tell you.
TL;DR
Trump is concerned about his position on the global scale, his approval ratings have been in a dip for a long time now. He has this insecurity of other world leaders stealing their limelight, so he keeps on doing these theatrical power moves that look strong but actually scream weakness.
Think about it - a secure leader doesnât need to claim they âstopped a nuclear warâ 30 times. A confident economy doesnât need to charge $100,000 admission fees. A powerful nation doesnât need to threaten allies with tariffs for buying oil.
This isnât foreign policy; itâs a midlife crisis with nuclear codes. Every tariff is a temper tantrum, every visa fee hike is a vanity metric, every âI saved the worldâ claim is a desperate grab for relevance in a world thatâs moving on without him.
The man who wrote âThe Art of the Dealâ is now writing âThe Art of the Squealâ - and the world isnât buying the sequel. Modiâs silence isnât just diplomatic genius; itâs the ultimate power move. Because nothing says âyouâre irrelevantâ quite like not even bothering to pick up your calls.
Trumpâs turning America into a gated community while the partyâs moving next door.
And the tragedy? Heâs so busy collecting door charges, he doesnât realize the VIPs already left through the back.